The Nintendo Switch’s best feature? Letting me play all the games that came before it
The Nintendo Switch is the Swiss army knife of games consoles. It’s a portable handheld, as well as a home box. It caters just as well to kid-friendly platformers and gut-wrenching shoot ‘em ups, as it does to turn-based strategy games.
For me, one of the Nintendo Switch’s greatest triumphs has been introducing me to all the games that came before it. I wasn’t born for the classic Nintendo era. The original Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, and all the other iconic games Nintendo super fans talk about to this day, have always looked ancient to me. I can appreciate they have a place in gaming history, but I never played them with my own hands.
The Switch changed that. Nintendo Switch Online comes bundled with a library of NES and SNES classics. The original Mario games are there, the first few Zeldas, Star Fox, Ninja Gaiden, EarthBound, F-Zero, and more. It’s a greatest-hits of Nintendo that has dragged me into the world of 8- and 16-bit gaming.
It’s so easy to start playing these Nintendo classics. There’s no fiddly (and likely illegal) emulator to install, no hardware to buy. If I have a sudden craving for 2D platforming, I can load the SNES app that’s already installed on my Switch’s home screen, and boot up Super Metroid in seconds. With the games ready and waiting, I’ve no excuse to avoid them, or inconvenient installation work to get through just to get them running on modern hardware.
They’re cheap, too. So long as you keep up your Nintendo Switch Online subscription, which is more affordable than its rivals’, you’ll have access to them for as long as you want. They might not be free, but they're pretty close to it.
Besides ease of access, the portability of the Switch has kept me coming back for more SNES
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